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jerbenn (903795) writes "I have recently decided to make the move from being a generalist IT professional in government, currently involved in maintenance programming in several different languages, some project management, some admin work (both MS and Unix), user support, etc., to strictly development. I have two opportunities; one consisting as a Java Web Developer, the other being an ASP.NET Web Developer primarily using VB 2005. Considering that the benefits/corporate culture are fairly equal, and forgetting the "Do what makes you happy" philosophy, what do you think is the best alternative? Looking into the future, which of the 2 development environments will offer the most stability, marketability, and personal growth? What do you think Slashdot Community?"

Interestingly, C++ being an extension of C added together is more than Java. Having gone through the pains of learning all three, I must admit I like C/C++ the best. Likely because I am a performance freak. Plus there are some things about Java I simply don't like at all.

To the original post, if your really a good programmer, C/C++ will be in there somewhere. It is still the OS language of choice, relatively lean and mean performance wise to the alternatives. While it isn't the language to use all the

In both Java and.Net you'll encounter the same basic problem. It goes something like this:1. Because the languages make it easy for software to run and keep running even when the developer is incompetent, an incompetent software developer can build software which more or less runs.

2. Because managers rarely have more than modest software development skills, they can't directly evaluate your code for what it is. They must rely on other metrics, such as whether or not it runs. As a result, managers find it v